Outlander PHEV

[Nater]

I had my Paj in for a replacement AC control unit under warranty yesterday and the dealer gave me the new Outlander PHEV plug in hybrid as a courtesy vehicle.

I thought I would write a few words about it -

MM claim a fuel economy of 1.9lt/100km which I thought would be a bit of a croc, until I drove it. My wife has a Prius C that averages 4.3lt/100km and is a much smaller car. The Outlander is a reasonable size comfortably seating 4/5 adults with plenty of room in the boot, and still manages this amazing economy.

The Outlander PHEV has all the mod cons such as auto boot, adaptive cruise control, forward collision mitigation etc etc. The one function I liked was the ability to utilise a MM phone app to remotely start the AC or heater, seat warmers, charge the vehicle, turn on headlights etc.

Being electric it is capable of driving around town up to 50km without using a drop of fuel. The electric motor is rather pokey too, especially when compared to the Prius. This means the majority of city driving would be very cheap, or even close to free if you have solar panels at home for recharging.

If you're in the market for a fuel efficient car for around town, this might be worth a look.

Craig

[LanaB]

my brother in law has one. Believe it was the first in SA, very nice car, and whilst the economy isn't quite as good as MM claim, it still is fantastic for such a large car. He is regularly asked lots of questions about it.

[stevemc181]

I'm thinking of trading the wife's VE Commodore in for a MY14.5 Outlander Aspire Phev. Has anyone on here got any recent experience with this model. Is the Aspire worth the extra cost over the standard model?

$33,990 Drive away for a brand new MY14.5 standard ZJ model
$32,355 + onroads for the Aspire with 26000km on the clock.

[old Jack]

Hi Steve,

I had the Service Managers PHEV Outlander for a day whilst the Challenger was being serviced. Decent size medium wagon that was nice to drive, went very well and handled like it was on rails. Not much smaller in interior space than the Challenger. I would not complain if I had to have one in the driveway.

cheers, OJ.

[stevemc181]

Hi Steve,

I had the Service Managers PHEV Outlander for a day whilst the Challenger was being serviced. Decent size medium wagon that was nice to drive, went very well and handled like it was on rails. Not much smaller in interior space than the Challenger. I would not complain if I had to have one in the driveway.

cheers, OJ.

Thanks OJ, All reports I can find from owners seem to indicate they are pretty happy with them. Brenda runs a business based on environmentally friendly products and is extremely pro Eco, so the Hybrid would also be a good fit with this with some graphics on the side. We've also got 6.7kw of panels on the roof, so charging it during the day will be free mostly. She also will only be doing short run work with it, so would rarely require fuel. Just thinking out loud at the moment, but might do the sums and take one for a test drive.

Seems the Aspire has quite a few features over the base model including adaptive cruise, collision mitigation etc, so we may go this way. My Iveco daily 4x4 Earth Cruiser will have to wait

[Jeffwatkins]

Seems Australia hasn't taken to hybrids. This from 2014.

http://www.motoring.com.au/hybrids-a-hard-sell-for-mitsubishi-42542/

[stevemc181]

Seems Australia hasn't taken to hybrids. This from 2014.

http://www.motoring.com.au/hybrids-a...subishi-42542/

Hence why there are some good deals going on MY14.5 models. A new model is also coming Post June and they want to clear what they have. It will always be a hard sell for a vehcle with an EV range of 50km's, but suits what the missus will do perfectly. She'd be lucky to do 30km a day and the odd longer trip here and there. We use the Paj for the big trips anyway.

Give it 10 or so years and I think we'll see a marked decline in Fossil Fuel powered vehicles, particularly for city and suburban use.

[old Jack]

Under 75kph the petrol engine cuts in and charges the battery. A 60kph I found that it charged at twice the usage rate. Above 75kph apparently the petrol engine stops powering the electric motor/ generator and direct couples with the front driveline. To start with the silence is a bit odd but after about 30minutes I enjoyed it. Lots of realy cool info displayed for those that want to know what is going on. If you do not need/want a 4wd then the PHEV would make a comfortable touring wagon if you stayed in accomodation or camped light, or a family car around the suburbs.

I see quite a few on the road now days, more than any other hybrid except for Hybrid Camry Taxi's.

cheers, OJ.

[stevemc181]

Yep, looking at the FAQ data, there are a few reasons the petrol engine will start.

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au/vehicles/outlander-phev/faqs

Outlander PHEV's petrol engine automatically starts when the drive battery level becomes low and requires charging or when a large amount of drive power is needed. Outlander PHEV can continue running in EV Drive mode while the engine is charging the battery, and the engine can supply drive power to assist the electric motors. The engine may also start to supply heat when the climate control system is in use.

To prevent engine damage caused by fuel deterioration, the engine starts to consume fuel if no more than 20 litres of gasoline have been added to the fuel tank in six straight months. The engine will continue to operate automatically while driving (in Hybrid mode) until the fuel tank is filled with at least 20 litres of fuel.

[MitsiPHEV]

Hello, First post, i have been a lurker for a bit.

I have owned a PHEV for about 6 months now, and love it, average fuel use i have had over the 6 months has been 2.0L/100 km.. very close to sticker figures.

as for the petrol engine, it will come on if you turn on the climate control, and the temperature difference between the set temperature you want, and outside temp is more than 10 Deg C. can be a little annoying on cold days when trying to drive in Pure EV for the work commute.

the engine will also start when the battery charge reaches 0, (which is actually 25%)
and it will start at any speed when you demand more power than the discharge rate of the battery allows, it will discharge the battery at max rate, but if you ask for more power, it will fire up the engine, and use the generator to add more to the electric motors (theres 2 of them, 1 front and rear)

once you back off, the engine stops.

IN Battery save mode, the battery level will be maintained, so it will drive on EV mode for a few KM, then turn on the engine to charge the battery, and when it gets back to the set level of charge, engine turns off, rinse repeat...

in Charge mode, the engine will charge the battery no matter what, stopped at lights, while driving etc. and will turn off the motor once the battery is full.

if the engine is running, either in Charge or Save mode, above 70 Km/h the engine will also drive the front wheels. it has no gearbox so its a fixed gear, like a permanent 5th gear. , hence the 70 km lower speed before petrol drives the wheels. and has a top speed of 150Km/h, which is redline for the petrol engine. This only happens in Charge or Save mode.

In EV mode, top speed is 150Kp/h on pure electric drive.

Max range i have had from Pure EV only is 52 Km.

The main reason i joined this forum, is i have purchased a wrecked Outlander PHEV, and plan on doing some playing around with the elctrical system, upgrade the drive battery, play around with adding features, and generally toying with the computer systems the car has, but sadly i need a M.U.T III coder.. something that could be quite expensive.

first mod is to use the battery in the wreck to charge my roadgoing PHEV, charge the wreck during the day from my solar system, then plug my outlander into the wreck and charge from its battery at the end of the day, essentially use it as a Outlander shaped powerwall. next mods will be upgrade the battery capacity. replace the LFT40 cells with newer more capacity cells, then see if the wreck will recognise, and still drive with the upgraded pack, and see if regeneration will charge it as well. if that works, then put the bigger pack into my Outlander, and the original pack back into the wreck.

after all that, next will be to remove all the running gear and electrics, and build a custom EV with it.

[xboxice]

Im actually considering buying a 2017 PHEV my only problem ill miss going on the sand,as i have a NP Exceed pajero but i want to get out of it and get something abit more modern.

[surf54]

Engelberg Tourer Concept

Hi All,

Will this be the replacement for the Pajero the coming decade presented during the Swiss show?
Already love what MM is doing with the Outlander PHEV but having a true 4WD with a 2.4l Petrol engine as well. The concept car virtually uses peanuts EV in the city but will have the power for true 4x4 even outback...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R00v5pcSNk&t=1110s

https://newatlas.com/mitsubishi-engelberg-tourer-concept/58759/#gallery

Hope Australia will jump onto the production bandwagon if the opportunity comes along.

Cheers,
Stephen

[erad]

Doesn't have a great ground clearance, but I guess where this car is intended to run, you don't need much clearance anyway...